On December 12th of 2003, I had taken Buzz to the
doctor for his immunizations. I had noticed a bump about the size of a
quarter on the left side of his forehead that morning and so when we got
to the doctor I asked him to check it just to be sure. He said "no
worries" and gave us the immunizations. We went home and on Monday
morning the 15th when Buzz woke up I noticed the bump again and it was
huge. Starting to take an oval shape and protruding like a golf ball
sticking out of his head. I immediately called the doctor and he said he
was booked but just "watch the bump" and if it doesn't go away in the
next day or two call back. Well I called the very next morning and they
said I could bring him in Thursday. I took him at our scheduled time on
Thursday and his eyes had become glossy he was having horrible headaches
and fever and they did end up doing a CT scan, said we had a sinus
infection, gave us a nasal spray and antibiotic and sent us home. When we
arrived home, I noticed his fever was getting worse and worse and before I
could give him anything to bring the fever down, he had fallen asleep.
Since we had just come from the doctor and this did not appear to be
life-threatening, I let him sleep. The next morning I checked him before
I went to work. His fever was gone and I left him sleep. My daughter
Brittany called me at work and said Buzz can't move and he has this
horrible head ache. Somehow he had managed to take 6 baths trying to get
some pressure off and relieve some of the pain. I immediately called the
doctor and told him our symptoms he said bring him at 2:30 and we will do
an actual influenza test. The flu in our area was pretty severe last year
so I felt like since he had seen him the night before and didn't seem too
worried this was still something controllable and we were going to get
through this. It would be ok. Once we arrived at the doctors office,
immediately upon seeing Buzz he said we should go to ER for spinal tap.
So we drove next door went to ER and the tap was performed almost
immediately. Of course the result was positive but they didn't seem to
concerned with it and said no problem. Started us on an antibiotic and
said we would be out of here by Monday. Home in time for Christmas. I'm
looking at my son thinking there is no way that is going to happen but
just get us better. They treated my daughter and I both with some form of
medication as well. This night which seemed to go on forever was the
beginning of a true nightmare. Saturday morning when Buzz woke, he could
not speak. All he could do was hold his hand at the left side of his
head. The bump was still there and he was deteriorating quickly. They
just kept shooting him with morphine and knocking him out. Clearly his
mental status was gone. Sunday the 21st he had no idea who I was, where
he was or what was even going on so I begged them to please send us
somewhere that someone could help us. Finally we were transferred to
Children's Hospital. By this time on top of the sinus infection and
meningitis he had developed pneumonia. After a short time of our arrival
at Children's he was taken in for emergency brain surgery and sinus
surgery also. While trying to prep him for surgery in the 10 minutes they
had been given, his veins were just bursting, no blood could be drawn and
he was losing his vitals. Fortunately he did make it through surgery. I
was told later that he had lost his vitals quit breathing and turned blue
during surgery however he must still have some work here to do because he
made it back. We remained in PICU for 9 days. Our first response being
three seizures on Christmas Eve. The recovery has been a very long road
and some days are still a struggle. Buzz is still taking oral medications
and was on IV's at home for four months. He had a nurse coming twice a
week and lots of therapy. We are so fortunate to be where we are today
and thank God each day for our second chance. Buzz is back in school full
days and doing well. We are hopeful for a complete recovery. Buzz gets
very frustrated sometimes because he forgets and his words cross every
once in awhile. He has had lots of speech therapy and we will continue to
get any treatment needed for a full recovery. We have read stories of the
other earthbound and heaven bound angels and reading those stories helped
us a lot. Just to learn and educate ourselves has helped us. We pray for
each family that has been stricken with this horrific disease no matter
the outcome. Thank You for hearing our story and may God Bless each of
you. We are so glad for Buzz to be part of this and will continue to
educate ourselves. Please feel free to contact us @ scaryhd@msn.com.
Buzz loves to meet new friends and looks forward to any response.

Lisa Harras

P.S. Frankie, thank you for all you do. I am really
wanting to find a local organization in relation to this where I could
donate my time, maybe talk to others about this. As I mentioned before it
was so hard to face this but I feel I am ready. The worst is behind us
and Thank you again. God Bless you. Please let me know what you do with
this and I will send you a picture when my daughter gets home from
school. Happy Holidays.